Make your pick: Seattle Seahawks at Arizona Cardinals

The Seattle Seahawks play their second NFC West matchup of the season when they travel to Arizona to play the Cardinals on “Thursday Night Football.” While facing a familiar divisional foe would usually help with the preparations in a short week, the new-look Cardinals offer no such convenience for Pete Carroll and the Hawks.

First-year head coach Bruce Arians has Arizona off to a 3-3 start — including a 2-0 record at home — as he hopes to build the Cards in the image of the Pittsburgh Steelers, for whom Arians worked as an assistant from 2004 to 2011, and the Indianapolis Colts, with whom Arians won AP Head Coach of the Year honors last season after filling in for Chuck Pagano during Pagano’s treatment for leukemia.

Arians is counting on veteran quarterback Carson Palmer to command the vertical-passing offense and get the ball to all-world wideout Larry Fitzgerald, who seemed to be withering on the vine through Arizona’s forgettable Kevin Kolb era. Electric corner Patrick Peterson is the best player on a defense dotted with standouts at each position group.

After a Week 5 loss at Indianapolis and a messy win last Sunday over the Titans, Thursday night’s game is an opportunity for the Seahawks to put together a solid effort on the road and grab a key divisional win.

The Seahawks lead the NFC West at 5-1 coming off of last week’s 20-13 home victory against Tennessee, a game that shouldn’t have been as close as it was. Seattle dominated the game in almost every category, including out-gaining the Titans 404 yards to 223. But a massive special teams gaffe and a continuing inability to turn long drives into touchdowns continued to bedevil the Seattle offense, which finished the game just 5-of-13 on third-down conversions.

Russell Wilson played mistake-free football, completing 23-of-31 passes for 257 yards, but the offensive-line woes against Houston and Indianapolis seemed to have taken their toll on his decision-making early in plays when he missed open receivers — choosing instead to roll out or scramble. Those plays often led to spectacular results (Wilson finished with 61 yards rushing on 10 attempts), but Wilson will need to be more decisive for the Seahawks’ passing game to operate at its fullest potential.

Marshawn Lynch proved to be the Hawks’ most potent weapon against Tennessee, rushing for 77 yards on 21 attempts and leading the team with four catches for 78 yards, including taking a pass from Wilson 55 yards on the first play of Seattle’s go-ahead drive at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

The Seahawks defense bottled up Titans’ running back Chris Johnson, and after backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick found initial success attacking Seattle corner Brandon Browner, the Hawks defense took away the deep ball with interceptions by both Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman.

Arizona will try to test the Legion of Boom secondary with Palmer throwing to a receiving corps of Fitzgerald, 2012 first-round pick Malcolm Floyd and slot receiver Andre Roberts. Even at 33, Palmer is certainly capable of making all the throws, but he’s more than lived up to his reputation for being mistake-prone, throwing 11 interceptions already this season — good for second-worst in the NFL — and completing just 59.7 percent of his passes through six games.

In the running game, sixth-round pick Andre Ellington looks on the verge of breaking out in his rookie year out of Clemson, but former Steelers back Rashard Mendenhall still takes the majority of carries due to his familiarity with Arians’ system. That might change soon if Arizona can’t do better than the 85.7 rushing yards per game that have them ranked just 23rd in the league in rushing.

The Cardinals defense has played well for most of the season, including holding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to 10 points in Week 4 and Carolina Panthers to six in Week 5. Arizona has very good players at each level, but the team’s offensive woes have made their job much more difficult.

The unit is led by the excellent linebacker duo of Karlos Dansby and Daryl Washington, who recently returned after missing four games due to suspension. Washington made his presence known in his Week 5 return, accounting for nine tackles, two sacks and an interception against the Panthers.

Perhaps the best player on the Cardinals defense is Peterson, a ball-hawk at the corner position and a dynamo in the return game. Rookie defensive back Tyrann Mathieu — known as the “Honey Badger” in his college days at LSU — has found a place in the Arizona defense as a cornerback-safety hybrid, compiling 39 tackles so far.

Arizona took a huge hit Sunday with the scary neck injury to defensive end Calais Campbell — the teams’ best D-lineman — whose status for Thursday’s game is questionable. Fitzgerald is also nursing a hamstring injury, but it didn’t seem to bother him last week, when he caught six passes for 117 yards and a touchdown at San Francisco.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks may be without a key lineman of their own after defensive end Chris Clemons hyper-extended his elbow against the Titans. Middle linebacker Bobby Wagner is also still out with an ankle injury, and K.J. Wright will again take over his job calling the defensive shots. Tight end Zach Miller should return — a huge boon for Wilson and the Hawks — but the offensive line is still weakened without tackled Russell Okung and Breno Giacomini.

Lynch, who is listed as probable with a hip issue, didn’t practice Tuesday and was limited Wednesday, but is fully expected to play Thursday. Carroll reiterated on Wednesday that Lynch is “fine.”

Kickoff Thursday is scheduled for 5:25 p.m. PDT. The game will be televised nationally on the NFL Network, and will be simulcast locally on Joe TV (channel 10 on most providers).